Sam Worthington Ready For "Clash 2" and "Avatars 2-10"

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Before Sam Worthington travels back to Pandora or Ancient Greece, he’s to the 1960s on the hunt for a Nazi responsible for a litany of atrocities.

“Here’s a movie where it’s not necessarily about Holocaust and Nazi hunters,” Worthington tells PopcornBiz of the new film “The Debt” from director John Madden (“Shakespeare In Love”) in which he, Jessica Chastain and Martin Csokas pursue a possible Third Reich butcher, leading to their present-day selves dealing with the mission’s fallout. “It’s actually about harboring a secret for so long that you know is wrong and the ripple effect it has not only on you, but everyone close to you in the long term.”

“It’s made me question everything,” he admits of the effect the film’s story had on him. “I used to hold a lot in, especially with loved ones. Now I’m pretty damn honest, whether it hurts them or not. I’d rather it hurt them straight up, rather than 30 years down the track, because then it can actually kill them.”

After turns in two hit 3D films in the science fiction and fantasy genres – “Avatar” and “Clash of the Titans” – Worthington says he doesn’t have a preference between acting in imaginative epics or stories deeply rooted in reality. “Each job you have has it’s own challenges,” the actor says. “I think that’s one of the great things about my job, is that each one is a different journey.”

Zoe Saldana, who plays the violent femme fatale Cataleya Restrepo in "Colombiana," talks about the film.

(Published Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011)

Worthington’s as eager as the audience to hear when writer/director James Cameron is ready to pull the trigger on starting a sequel to “Avatar.” “I talked to him on my birthday,” he says. “He’s told me where he wants to take ‘Avatar 2’ and ‘3.’ It’s monumental – It’s just huge! You would expect nothing less. He’s not going to start it until he knows he’s a hundred percent. They’re already setting up shop in Manhattan Beach, and when he says, “Jump,” I jump!”

“I’ll do 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 with Jim,” he adds. “I love working with him. He raises the bar and gives you the courage to jump over it. He keeps pushing in life. He hasn’t just changed my life career-wise – he’s changed my life as a man. He makes you stronger in a sense of being more focus and committed. If I’m doing this job, I’ve got to challenge myself more. Don’t listen to anybody else. Don’t listen to any media or bloggers. Just listen to yourself. Push yourself, or else there is no point in me doing this. If I don’t believe I am growing, if I believe I’m just coasting, then I got to get of the train. I’ve got to keep growing, keep going. It’s a long marathon.”

The latest leg of Worthington’s marathon is a return to the character of Perseus for the “Clash of the Titans” sequel. Despite the remake’s critical drubbing, he wasn’t surprised to be called back for a second film “because it made a sh*tload of money – a lot of people went and saw it. We’ve just got to make [the sequel] right. I just finished that. I loved that experience. ‘Clash 2’ is so different. It was a different experience for me because I had learned a lot in ‘Clash 1’ and I learned a lot from different movies. I can’t wait for it to come out. [Director] Jonathan Liebesman –I’m working with him for the rest of my life. I love him.”